Botox Used to Shrink Stomach Cancers in Mice

Researchers have discovered how nerves play a critical role in stomach cancer growth. By blocking the nerve signals through surgery or Botox, researchers at Columbia's Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center believe they could provide more effective treatments for the disease.

"Scientists have long observed that human and mouse cancers contain a lot of nerves in and around the tumor cells," said Dr. Wang, the Dorothy L. and Daniel H. Silberberg Professor of Medicine at Columbia's Herbert Irving Comprehensive Cancer Center, in a news release. "We wanted to understand more about the role of nerves in the initiation and growth of cancer, by focusing on stomach cancer."

Health officials believe that stomach cancer kills an estimated 11,000 people in the United States per year, according to the National Cancer Institute. Unfortunately, for many, by the time they realize they have this type of cancer, it may be too late. Many health officials refer to it as a "silent killer."

"The nerves are silenced or muted, unable to signal to the stem cells and cancer stem cells in the stomach," said study co-author Dr. Timothy Wang, professor of medicine and chief of digestive and liver diseases at Columbia University Medical Center in New York City, via Health Day. 

For the study, researchers tested Botox on mice to try and combat stomach cancer by silencing nerves that connect to tumors.

By using three different mouse models of stomach cancer, researchers found that they performed a procedure called a vagotomy to cut the nerves that showed remarkably slowed tumor growth and increasing survival rates, overall.

As researchers are still in the early stages of testing, they hope to learn more about this potential treatment with more testing. 

"In the future, we'd really like to look at how we can use this method of targeting nerves to stop the growth of more advanced tumors," concluded Dr. Wang.

More information regarding the findings can be seen via the journal Science Translational Medicine.